App Review: Service Tattler

I was a heck of a bartender back in the day.  I could sling drinks as fast as anyone and chat with random people about anything.  This resulted in a great group of regulars most nights.  Still, my mix-master skills and charm couldn’t please everyone, like the girl who wanted Midori and Squirt.

I remember her because not only was it the only time someone ordered a drink with Squirt, but also her reaction.  She refused to order anything else, continued to complain like we were the only Squirt-less bar in the world and sat there frowning and arms crossed while her friends enjoyed themselves.  A shop down the street had a vending machine with Squirt, so I ran and bought two cans.  She had a drink, complained and didn’t tip me, which meant I was out the two bucks I spent on Squirt.

This is who I think of anytime I come across a restaurant review tool, like the Android application Service Tattler.  I am always skeptical since someone as ignorant as her will be the one rating an establishment.  Service Tattler, however, is designed to force a person to be as objective as possible and is the best review tool and tip calculator I have seen.

Service Tattler is designed to be a “snarky tip calculator.”  It consists of five easy to navigate tabs:

• yays: positive attributes, from “Seated quickly” to “Server has great fashion sense”
• boos: negative attributes, from “Drinks served after appetizer” to “Host is arrogant punk”
• timer: track how long parts of the meal took; “Arrival to seating,” “Order to Drinks Served,” etc.
• tip calculator: enter number of people, bill amount, overall rating and it figures the tip and breaks it down per person
• Location info: restaurant’s name, location, any comments to share and publish your review (anonymously)

The layout of Service Tattler is easy to use and the snarky comments make it fun.  I didn’t use the timer much in my test drive nor do I suspect that I would use it down the road, but it’s a nice touch.  There are a few menu options for settings and to take you to the Service Tattler Blog and Directory where you can look up restaurants in your area to see how they have stacked up.

What really set this apart from all other review tools and tip calculators is the rating method.  As you check the applicable yays and boos, it begins figuring a star rating which with the overall rating you give, determines its final rating AND the tip.  This is the genius part in my opinion.  If you accurately and fairly fill out the criteria, it figures a higher or lower tip based on your feedback.  You can always tip more or less, but as someone who previously was dependent upon tips for income, I love that it gives a figure based on dining experience and not a standard 15%-20%.

The only con I found was the lack of available reviews.  The directory of restaurants is limited to those that have been reviewed by the service tattler application.  This just requires time and more users for it to develop a meaningful list for one to peruse restaurant recommendations.  However, this does not affect the intended usefulness of the application as a tip calculator, nor does it impact it’s snarkiness.  It provides both of those with no problems.

I would definitely recommend Service Tattler.  It is fun, useful and easy to use.  Developed by New Objectivity, Inc., Service Tattler is available in the Android Market for free.  Please also check out Service Tattler’s site or their Facebook Fan Page for more information!